The Moon is in Aries this morning, and the Sun has just entered the sign of Sagittarius.

First a thank you to everyone who contributed yesterday to a fast start to my kickstarter. In the first day of raising funds we've crossed the $2,000 mark on the way toward our $7500 goal. If you read my horoscopes or if they have made an impact on your life in the past year, please consider contributing to another year of daily horoscopes in 2016! You can visit the kickstarter link here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1163009170/nightlight-daily-horoscopes-2016. Every little bit helps, and today I have posted a new reward tier. If you contribute $75 to my kickstarter you will receive a special year ahead, personally recorded Tarot reading (sent to you via mp3). I've made a limited number of these available, so contribute today while they are still around. Last year they went pretty fast!

First let's recall a simple fact that many people who study astrology don't know about. The zodiac sign's meanings were not originally derived from constellation images. In fact, the zodiac itself is better understood as a mathematical and numerological system of divination whose perfect twelve divisions are only meant to be loosely signified by the constellations in the sky. In fact, if you simply look at the zodiacal constellations along the ecliptic you'll quickly realize that they are unequal and don't make very good mapping tools in this regard.

Personally it took me a while to actually feel the significance of this simple observation in my work. In ancient astrology the signs were called the houses or domiciles of the planets. What we now call "houses" were actually referred to as "places," whereas the word "house" would have been more appropriately describing a sign. So, for example, Sagittarius might be poetically referred to as the celestial mansion or home/house of Jupiter. The realm of Sagittarius is thus not the realm of the constellation of the Centaur, but rather the Centaur is a sign post in the sky that refers TO the mathematical division of the ecliptic that lands between 240 and 270 degrees of the ecliptic, starting from the vernal equinox point. That 30 degree division falls during approximately the last thirty days of Autumn and leads to the Winter Solstice at its conclusion. This thirty degree division was referred to as fiery and common or double bodied, a time of year or a place in the ecliptic that shares in both the most stable qualities of Autumn and the onset of Winter. An area of the zodiac that was considered masculine, and the qualities of fire associated with the sign were heat and dryness. The Centaur was the constellation image for this domain. I now like to think of it like the banner or sigel of a celestial tribe, realm, kingdom or family. Maybe I've just watched too many Game of Thrones episodes! However, it is interesting to note that the word "sigel" actually means "Sun" in old english, and sigels were commonly thought to have symbolic/magical properties.

The reason I'm laboring these points is that it can help us to step back and see the signs in terms of these very vast realms of the planets, rather than immediately jumping into archetypal or psychological or personal possessive language. Like "Sagittarius' are cocky and wise," or "Sagittarius' love to party and travel," etc. Or even laboring long explanations about the mythic symbolism of Centaurs. To make a literary correlation...if you've read the Game of Thrones series, you know that each family has a sigel. So the Starks have the dire wolf, the Lannisters have the lion, etc. But what makes game of thrones so interesting is the way in which each unique character, while bearing some resemblance to their sigel, has their own destiny or fate that is far too complicated and specific to be adequately summarized by their sigel.

I think similarly about the fact that I'm from Minnesota, which gives me a certain amount of credibility, for example, when discussing the TV series and film, "Fargo." I hail from the land of Minnesota, which is kind of like saying I was born while the Moon was in Cancer or Jupiter was in Sagittarius (the home signs of these planets). Within the conversation about Fargo, I have a certain amount of authority on the subject because I bear the mark of Fargo's celestial sigel on my very polite, mid-western forehead. But now I'm living in Maryland, vis a vis New York City and a long excursion into Amazonian psychedlic shamanism. In those realms I am very much a "guest" and not at all the expert. Those sigels are not my home sigels, you might say. Yet now I know something about them...

For example, when people ask me to talk to them about Ayahuasca or someone who has never lived in or been to NYC asks me about it, I have some experiences to draw on, but even so my experiences refer to landscapes and social/cultural niches that are tremendously vast and more foreign to me, and so I have to speak about them with far less topographical expertise or confidence than I might speak about the realm of Minnesota.

Zodiac signs are like celestial dimensions. So how much more vast are these realms from the vastness of the human realms we still find ourselves tremendously overwhelmed by?

How big and wide and diverse is the masculine/fire realm of Jupiter? Last time I checked Jupiter could have almost become a star. And while I love the mythic image of the centaur...it's also a practice for me to see the constellation image like a simple sigel or banner waving above the gateways to a land that has too many entrances to count, and too much land, space, terrain and depth to neatly summarize by words like "journey, higher learning, and freedom loving."

When mythology becomes typology, we forget the vast realms from which the planetary symbolism lives and breathes and flows forth into our lives.

So for today, I'm standing back and choosing not to talk about Sagittarius (just for today) in terms of "types of people" or "myths become behaviors." Instead I'm seeing a tremendously large gateway opening into a vast realm, the celestial home of Jupiter. Above the gateway I see a banner blowing in the cosmic winds of deep space...the image of a Centaur.​Prayer: Helps us to recognize the home lands of the planets, rather than shopping at the touristy adjective stands outside their gates...

The Moon is in late Scorpio, void of course but already moving to conjoin Saturn in early Sagittarius.What to watch for:* A stern, serious, focused, and studious atmosphere* Refining, limiting, or taming the desire nature for the sake of higher things* A philosophical debate, presenting both sides, unifying ideas* The beginning of a new form of study or intellectual discipline* Successfully communicating ideas* Piety versus desire or indulgence* Rapid innovation, growth, progress, inflation, individuation, rebelliousness, sudden changes or explosions of insight and discovery* A combination of hot/moist and hot/dry energies with nine planets or points in air and fire...movement, action, mental adaptability mingling with inflexibility, impulse, and aggression * The voice of reason, discernment, and wise judgement...no excuses or weaseling out of things* The subject of victims and victim consciousness...to what extent is it a healthy or harmful part of the changes we advocate for or demand in the world?* Being taken advantage of or taking advantage of...realizing who we do and don't want to be connected with because of the need for share beliefs, ideas, values, or temperaments* The study of something ancient, mastering something from the past, looking backward* Communicative conflict, twisting words, lies and deceit, and the illusions of liberal open mindedness* Dogma and dogmatic close mindedness * The nature of fundamentalism...the extreme left becomes extreme right and vice versa* Accommodating a diversity of perceptions and beliefs* The subjects of validation, diversity, and identity...to what extent do we define ourselves or our dignity based on particular experiences we've had?* A fiery, expansive, jovial spirit of exploration, expansion, good faith, and conquest coming through later in the day todayAs we approach the full moon by early tomorrow morning, something is coming to a head. Something has reached a stage of culmination, and it's likely that this culmination reflects a gathering of new ideas and points of view, new theories and new intellectual or spiritual commitments. Our minds have been changing. How we process, think, and communicate, as well as what we will and will not take as excuses from ourselves or others is front and center at the moment. Walking our talk has become paramount for the sake of our spiritual health, but we've also been working to incorporate new ideas into our lives in a way that creates more peace, compassion, and patience with those that don't share our views. Similarly, we might be hitting road blocks right now if our minds are incapable of changing, revising, or revisioning things. We may find ourselves overwhelmed by the details or lost in the fogs of uncertainty about the future. If we don't slow down and listen carefully we'll miss what's being said. As the full moon represents a peak of energy, we may also feel tired...like the process should be father along than it is already, or like we're taking two steps forward and one step back at regular intervals. This is because this full Moon is happening in the mix of a Mercury retrograde. Also...the t-square to Neptune and Saturn involves two planets who are retrograde and slowing to station right now. So much of this month's cycle has to do with "going backward in order to go forward," or revising or revisiting something, and then slowly, slowly, watching a sea change of vision take place.To change our minds it's not just about the ideas changing. We might have new ideas or a new sense of something, but the overall transition will still take time. Things should be more or less sailing along by the waxing part of next moon cycle, right as we reach summer solstice!Prayer: help me to enjoy the gradual change taking place, so that my mind might be changed....the one that is trying to force things right now is the same one slowly being changed

The waning Moon in Scorpio will square Jupiter in Leo this morning before sextiling the Sun in Capricorn and then turning void of course.As Saturn continues its grand entrance into Sagittarius we’re already getting a sneak peek at some of the more challenging themes of its new sign placement. A few to look into for today include the nature of truth as well as the nature of law (societal and karmic or spiritual law alike), the fixity or rigidity of holding any kind of truth we value (how hard should we hold/express what we believe?), and the nature of the priesthood (all different kinds of priesthoods, not just religious ones). Let’s look at the complications of all these themes in greater detail, and let’s look at the Charlie Hebdo event as kind of imaginal anchor for this exploration.At first glance the shootings at the French satire magazine look like an obvious and simple case of terrorism, and really in the most simple sense that’s exactly what they were: murderous, hateful acts committed by religious extremists. A challenge to our freedom of speech, our freedom of mind, our freedom of humor, and the freedom of the press in a free society (especially France whose national history has been such an important part of revolution on our planet!). For all of these reasons it’s clear why so many people rallied and marched together to support the continuation of these rights and freedoms. As a professional blogger myself, these rights are fundamental.However, we can’t stop here. Or we can, but if we do then we won’t have the opportunity to look at the more complex and challenging layers of the conversation that are happening in the aftermath of the shootings, all over the world (including the magazine’s offensiveness to millions of non-extreme muslims). It’s my feeling that it’s possible to enter into the more ambiguous or grey-zone areas of events like these without being ignorant. And so with that in mind, let’s continue…The problems begin when we begin to contemplate the nature of what satire IS and what satire DOES a little more carefully. The word “satire” has a complex etymological background, which relates the word to others like “satiate,” and “sad,” as well as “satyr” and even “Saturn.” Interestingly enough, the word ‘satyr’ refers to a horse/man/goat like mythical creature, whose relationship to the sea-goat of Saturn is obvious and whose famous trouble-making is as old as the romping of centaurs (Sagittarius’ constellation image). The work of the satirist, according to an interesting academic paper shared on the “Sarcasm Society” website is defined as follows: “Satire is an indirect form of critique, in that it mocks or attacks an individual or idea by proxy. Satirical speech and literature is generally used to observe and judge the “evils” or morally questionable ideals held by individuals, groups and sometimes entire cultures. The attack itself is derived from what is known as the satirist’s social motive–these critiques illustrate what the satirist, within the context of their own world view, believes is “right” based upon what they ridicule as “wrong.”The challenging part of this definition arises when we recognize that satirists are not free from their own guiding set of beliefs, dogmas, and moral or philosophical claims. In over a dozen websites that I researched this morning, all sites define the genre of satire as a political, social, or philosophical “attack,” made through the use of artistic, poetic images or speech. What makes satire so important for our society is the idea that we can use art alongside of ideas to argue and debate the nature of truth with each other. For this reason alone, Satire has existed for thousands of years, since Greek and Roman times as an effective political and social weapon. The pen, along with the crayon and the cartoonist’s pencil, is often truly mightier than the sword.At the same time, the very archetype of using humor and art as a weaponry of ideas has always been, by its very nature, something that tends to offend people. It offends because its very nature is aggressive and confrontational, as well as cathartic. This is why so many people are having complex reactions to the Hebdo shootings. It’s not that anyone would standby and condone murder (for the most part). It’s that the response to these murders has generated a conversation about ideas, about truth, and about the freedom of the press or ideological freedom in general.Where is there a line of respect for the diversity of beliefs in our world? When does that line become censorship? Should we celebrate the trashing of religions and faiths through pointed humor, or do they have it coming because of their history of rigidity and intolerance? Should we find more considerate ways of debating? Does one ideological attack, no matter how humorous, invite more of the same, or should satirical media outlets be granted amnesty under the law…we turn our eyes away from the nature of satirical aggression because it’s form of aggression is 100% protected by law? Is satire its own dogma? Are there high priests of satire, secretly furthering their own secular/atheistic/materialistic agendas through the constant leveraging of easy ideological targets?Take Jon Stewart, for example. A double Sagittarius. I once heard Richard Tarnas call him a “high priest” of the media, a sort of high priest as satirist. Millions of people worship at the temple of the Daily Show, specifically because it is a kind of charismatic, evangelistic roasting of current events around the world. Stewart, using brilliant satire and artistic humor and images makes moral attacks upon whoever and whatever appears most dubious. He is purposefully inflammatory, in the same way preachers purposefully amp up a congregation for the sake of religious catharsis. And yet, for as successful as Stewart is, I’ll never forget the night when I came home from an ayahuasca ceremony and had to turn off the television because I found his voice and his aggression entirely off putting. Obviously I was in a very particular state of consciousness, but many people have the same reaction to satirists in general. They simply don’t like the tone..it feels passive aggressive (certainty and self righteousness disguised in open mindedness).Another example, even more challenging for spiritual people, is Bill Maher. Yesterday a Salon article featured Bill Maher saying that nobody should make choices based on ancient myths. He said, ““It seems to me the most obvious decision a person could make in their life,” Maher explains. “Do I want to make real-world policy decided on the basis of proven facts and the reaches of what humans have gotten to do in science? Or do I want real-world decisions made based on ancient myths written by men who didn’t know what a germ or an atom was, or where the sun went at night?”Maher, like many satirists since the Roman and Greek times, are often unconsciously acting out the priesthood of secularism. Ironically, the archetypal pattern Maher is acting out here is as old and mythic as any other. Whether its modern scientific fundamentalism or Islamic or Christian fundamentalism, the point is that satire is often just as dogmatic and aggressive as any set of religious doctrines. Progressive, reactionary, freedom oriented thinking, that uses pointed insults, mockery, and passive aggression in the press, is participating in the war of ideas.It’s not something we can avoid or get rid of (nor should we). But with Saturn in Sagittarius, as the dispositor of Pluto in Capricorn square to Uranus in Aries, we are being challenged to examine the deeper ways in which religiosity of all kinds permeates our world. Saturn as the lord of karma is different than a victim blamer. Saturn is the planet whose nature best embodies the “opposition” aspect in astrology, since its sign rulers are the direct oppositions to both the sun and the moon’s signs. Saturn is always showing us what we are and what we are not, in the clearest and often most difficult sense. To learn how to see the dynamics of Saturn we have to be very careful. Saturn rules the archetype of the “scapegoat” because looking at how conflicts implicate both people or both sides of an issue can always tip over into victim blaming. This is why Saturn’s exaltation is found in the balance and justice ruled sign of Libra (the scales).Using a careful, exalted in Libra kind of evaluation, it’s never about making the victim and the aggressor equal to each other in some abstract or dehumanizing way. It’s about understanding how the nature of who the victim was, what myths they were living, and what the shadows of those myths were about, imply or involve the persecutor. In this instance, the point that many people sense and feel is that the nature of satire is aggressive, can be its own form of dogmatism or self-righteousness, and therefore MTYTHICALLY it implicates itself into the war of ideas and beliefs that unfortunately can play itself out in situations like the Hebdo shootings. It’s ironically even MORE Sagittarian to explore the events in this way. Rather than taking something at surface value and making the event about just ONE issue, the desire is to stretch out beyond what is known and explore things further. This is the strange combination that comes up when the sign of Jupiter (possibilities, freedom, and expansion) meets with Saturn (fate, limitation, and rigidity). The upset that people have around the marching and “freedom of press” fist pumping isn’t about whether or not the press should be free, in other words, it’s about the knee jerk reaction to take the deaths of these individuals and transform their deaths into yet another ideologically rigid tirade. The deeper question is about ideological tirades in general. The question is about truth and freedom, in general. The sense is that we live in a world where fate is also part of how things play out. Limitations and “cause and effect” are also part of how things play out, spiritually and psychologically. Does freedom have to be absolutely free, or can it have a relationship with the fates? This is a question for the French and American psyches right now, clearly, as well as the global psyche. These are all instances of Saturn in Sagittarius.To conclude–I have no answers. I myself have a Capricorn Moon (with Saturn ruling my moon from the sign of Libra but also in conjunction with Jupiter!). My moon is also in the 9th house of Sagittarius. I believe these kinds of contradictions are an essential part of why I’m an astrologer. To me it’s important that we look at the mythic dynamics of all these patterns in order to understand the relationships between them…by doing this I’d like to believe that we’re making greater space for the diverse structures of each other’s worlds.prayer: a comic strip that Daniel Pinchbeck recently posted on Facebook (click to see it full size)…

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Author

Adam Elenbaas is a professional astrologer and the founder of the Nightlight Astrology School. Adam holds an MA and MFA in English and Creative Writing and is one of the founding writers at RealitySandwich. To learn more about Adam, click here.